The Coming Darkness
by Andalus23
Summary: After a traumatic mission, Gine realizes she is not cut out for the warrior's life. So she retires early from the military to try and start a family and live a peaceful life. Though, this decision does not come without consequences. The universe is a terrible place, and Gine will soon find out just how dark it can be.
1. Chapter 1

Dragonball: The Coming Darkness.

 **A/N:**

 **Edit: After re-reading this chapter a few times, I realized it was garbage, so I fixed it kind of. It's better now.**

Chapter 1:

 _ **Aftermath of a Conquest. The Dreadful Saiyan Warriors!**_

The sun rose over a battered city landscape as plumes of thick black smoke gently floated into the morning sky. What once appeared to be a great city was now nothing more than a pile of rubble and ash. In the streets, the victims of a senseless genocide lay slain, their blood painted the concrete a dark blue colour.

The murdered creatures appeared avian in nature, with large tan beaks and purple like quills that protruded from their skulls. They were ugly things, a complete contrast to their beautiful and resource rich planet. Which, by some cruel twist of fate, was the reason for their demise. Their race had been marked for destruction by the infamous Intergalactic Planet Trade Organization lead by the cruel and cunning Lord Frieza, and their planet was to be sold to the highest bidder. A very profitable endeavor, with grim consequences for those who stood in the way.

Despite their small and weak stature, the race of avian like creatures proved to be quite a nuisance to The Freiza Force due to their impressive technological capabilities. Awarding themselves the honor of being destroyed by a team of adult saiyan warriors.

The Saiyan race, a humanoid species known across the universe for their barbaric and brutal warrior ways. They were feared across the cosmos as beasts of death, bringing ruin to whatever planet they appeared on that happened to have intelligent life, and valuable resources. Currently under the employment of Galactic Emperor Lord Frieza, their genocidal capabilities were being used in full effect.

In one of the craters that marred the surface of the alien world, laughter reminiscent of a merry gathering could be heard despite their surroundings. A group of six Saiyan warriors that had just finished exterminating the population of bird-people sat together and reveled in their quick conquest.

"I'd say this was our most successful mission yet!" exclaimed Tora, a tall muscular Saiyan.

"Yeah, we cleared this dump out in only five days, I have no idea why the PTO had so much trouble with these chums," agreed Shugesh, a short plump male Saiyan with a thin goatee.

"Not quick enough for my liking," said Bardock, a scarred saiyan with hair reminiscent of a palm tree. The leader of the group of Saiyans.

"Whaddya' mean Captain? The full moon didn't appear until last night! There was no way we could have purged the planet quickly enough without it," Shugesh justified.

"Yeah Doc, this planet is too big and there were too many of those guys to clear the planet any quicker," spoke Selipa, the one of only two saiyan females on the team.

"A team of elites would have had this place cleared in less than two days, and without the full moon," Bardock retorted. He continued, "You guys 're gonna' have to stop being slouches on missions if we're ever gonna' be recognized as more than just low class scum. These guys were pathetically weak, it was an insult that they even sent in a team of adult fighters to clear this place out! A bigger insult that they sent _us_ to do it!"

"What's got your tail in a twist Captain? So what if they sent us? It was probably just command letting us have some fun once in a while," Tora said.

"No, it was command telling us that they don't respect us. They think we're weak so they give us the easy jobs that they give to kids, and it took us _five_ days to do it! This was a pathetic display from all of you," Bardock scorned.

Bardock cared for his team a great deal, they had followed him through hell and back. He would never ask for a better group of warriors to stand beside him in battle. But it was because of this that he had to be so hard on them. Bardock wanted his team and himself to be recognized as true saiyan warriors and hopefully be the only Saiyans to ever be promoted from low class to elite.

Bardock and his squad had been developing a reputation as being swift conquers and were surely becoming the most effective low class team the Saiyan army had. However, on the past few missions their effectiveness was steadily declining, Bardock's squad members had been showing signs of arrogance, thinking they were invincible. Resulting in them taking far too long to clear their missions and making too many rookie mistakes on the battlefield. Bardock realized he really needed to crack the whip or else they'll all end up dead on some backwater world.

Tora stood up and made his way over to where Bardock was standing. "Ah c'mon Doc' look on the bright side," Tora put an arm around Bardock's shoulder. "At least you got to save Gine's ass again, I'm sure she'll be all over you once we get back to Vegeta," Tora teased with a sly grin. Earning a hostile growl from his leader.

"Sh-shut up Tora!" a flustered Gine shouted.

"Bardock's right guys," spoke the usually quiet Borgos. "We've been too cocky lately, and if we all don't start pulling our weight around we'll never make it to the elites. Some of us more than others." Borgos turned towards Gine, "You have to toughen up kid, we would have been done much quicker if we didn't have to routinely save you or spend hours trying to convince you to fight at all."

"What? Don't shift the blame to me, we're all at fault, tell him Bardock!" Gine said.

Bardock didn't say a word, he couldn't bring himself to say something that might hurt Gine's feelings. He only could give her a blank stare. It was strange, he used to never care about what she felt, or about what anyone felt. However, that was before he'd developed feelings of his own for her, though he'd never admit it. Bardock and Gine have had an irregular relationship for saiyan standards for over a year now. Gine's softness was starting to rub off on him.

"Bardock?" she called again, her voice a little hurt.

Bardock looked away. He knew Borgos was right, Gine was just holding them back. He wouldn't say it himself though.

"Finally, someone said it, was afraid if I said anything Captain was gonna blow his top or something," said Shugesh.

It was Selipa's turn to speak, "Yeah Gine, listen, we like you, you're just a terrible fighter."

All Gine could do was frown and look to her boots.

"Ah now don't make that face, if it makes ya' feel better I could give ya' some special training if Doc's willing to share," Tora teased.

Bardock became red in the face, "I swear Tora if you don't shut your mouth-"

"Don't worry Doc' I'm only teasing you know that."

Bardock let out a long sigh, "Whatever, let's just get back to the pods and get off this dump." He stood up and made his way out of the crater they were currently sitting in. Bardock looked out at the destruction before him. The once impressively tall buildings were broken down to piles of rocks and metal scraps, huge craters were scattered among the skeletal remains of the city and the whatever remained of inhabitant's bodies were gruesomely sprawled across the streets. It was a sight he has gotten used to over the years. The great ape transformation tended to be a lot more destructive. The uncontrollable power was always a lot less graceful in their purging methods, and it almost always left nothing behind.

Gine climbed out of the crater and stood beside him. Bardock noticed the disgusted expression her face had as she looked over the destruction. She was always too soft.

"Wow, we really wrecked this place, didn't we?" she said in a somber tone.

"Who cares? What did they expect when they decided to send in saiyans so close to the full moon?"

"You think this will hurt the sale value?" she asked him.

"Tch, whatever," Bardock dismissed.

"Still, don't you think we should have been…cleaner?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…I mean…we didn't have to kill _all_ of them."

Bardock sighed, "Please don't start with this again,"

"Just hear me out on this, if we don't kill everyone that means whoever buys the planet can have some servants, it would increase the sale value! A-and their-"

"Look, Gine," he cut in, "We're sent to these planets to kill, that's what we do. I don't know if some fat alien is gonna' be pissed he doesn't get slaves to wipe his ass and to be honest, I don't care. What I do know is that we are paid to make sure these planets are under Frieza's control, and what better way to make sure of that then to leave no one left alive to oppose him. It's the way the universe works, the strong live and the weak die." Bardock was always straight to the point, he never flowered his words. What was the point? He didn't care.

"I-I guess you're right," she said timidly. "Speaking of Freiza, don't you think it's weird that these guys turned his forces back three times?"

This was something that had been looming in the back of Bardock's mind the entire mission. Why exactly did the Frieza Force have so much trouble with this place? The people of this planet repelled three invasions, and each time the Frieza Force suffered heavy casualties when they left. He remembered the mission report stating the technological capabilities of these creatures were extraordinary. Though when he got here it wasn't really all that impressive. Sure, there were some close calls. He remembered multiple occasions where he or his team had to dodge missile attacks that would have blown them to bits or super powered blasts from their energy cannons. But it was entirely manageable. The highest power level of the creatures barely passed one-hundred. Even if Freiza's regular soldiers were incompetent when it came to conquering worlds, they still could hold their own. Something wasn't right, there had to be another reason why this planet was so difficult to conquer.

Just then, his scouter beeped to life.

Bardock tensed, not at the fact that there was still someone left, it wasn't uncommon that as soon as the transformation happened the victims would take advantage of the mindlessness the saiyans experienced while transformed, and hide in some deep cavern. But it was because whoever was still out there, they were strong.

"Everyone up, we've got company!" Bardock commanded.

In an instant, the group of fearsome warriors were up and alert, ready for the oncoming threat. They each climbed out of the crater and stood beside their leader.

"Shit! I thought we got all of them," cursed Shugesh.

Selipa looked to her scouter, "There's only one, power level two-thousand!"

"What?! Two-thousand?! There's no way that can be right, the max power level we got here was barely above one-hundred!" Shugesh argued while fumbling with his own scouter.

"No, it's right. Prepare yourselves, this is gonna' be a tough one!" warned Bardock.

Bardock looked towards Gine, he could see the fear written on her face. They didn't usually go up against beings this strong.

A lone figure touched down some distance away from where Bardock was standing. It was tall, well built, and was clothed in a long, brown robe completely different from the kind seen on the planet. It also carried with it a long, black, metal bo-staff. A hood cloaked the newcomer's face, making it impossible to determine what race this warrior was from.

"You saiyans will pay for your evil deeds!" called out a deep, masculine voice.

Bardock spoke up, "Listen, I'm not trying to stay on this dump any longer than I have to, so let's get this going already."

"Hmph, took the words right out of my-"

Before he could finish, Bardock was already on him, he blasted off towards the lone warrior and proceeded to assault him with a series of fast strikes, putting all his power behind every punch. The Lone Warrior ducked and weaved between all Bardock's attacks with ease. Then, with a speed faster than any of them could comprehend, gave the scarred Saiyan a hard blow to his abdomen sending him flying backwards and into the side of a building.

" _Not bad,"_ Bardock thought. This guy was certainly way stronger than anyone he fought here. But he wasn't yet convinced the warrior was the reason for three failed invasions.

"D-did you guys see that?" Gine stuttered.

"Sure did, it's a wonder Captain still has any energy left since the transformation," Shugesh commented

"Not that! Turn your scouter on, that guy's power level keeps jumping all over the place," said Gine.

Bardock was back up and ready for another go. He shot forward once more. He fired off a few ki blasts at the hooded fighter who crossed his arms in front of him to block the incoming attacks. As the blasts hit they created a plume of smoke around the warrior, blocking his field of vision.

This was Bardock's chance. Using his scouter to lock down the Warrior's position, he phased in and out to above the warrior and with all the power he could muster, sent down a crushing axe handle. But before his attack could connect the hooded Warrior disappeared.

The Warrior reappeared behind Bardock and slammed his staff into the Saiyan's head knocking him to the hard ground once more.

 _"How the hell did he know I was behind him? I don't see a scouter with him,"_ The scarred Saiyan thought with his face in the dirt. He quickly jumped to his feet and leapt back a few yards to put some distance between them.

"This fight is over. You are finished," stated the Warrior as he raised his hand out in front of him and gathered energy into his palm. He fired off the blast towards the saiyan. Bardock then launched his own blast, intercepting the oncoming attack in midair creating a large explosion, kicking up dust and dirt into the air, blocking visibility between the two. Bardock waited for the smoke to clear before making his next move, keeping his guard up incase his opponent decided to try anything.

When the smoke cleared however, the lone warrior was gone. Bardock tensed. He scanned the area with his scouter. He wasn't showing up anywhere.

"You rely too much on that primitive device!"

Bardock's scouter buzzed, he was behind him! But he couldn't react fast enough, the Warrior's fist connected with the saiyan's jaw and he flew back, skidding to a halt on the ground.

"Alright guys this is our cue," said Tora. He flew forward and with all his strength, threw a left hook at the warrior's face, but connected with his forearm as the warrior had lifted it to block. Tora sent another punch, blocked again, this time from the warrior's staff. Tora kept at it, swinging and kicking while the warrior blocked and dodged every hit. Selipa then joined the fray, sending her own hits towards the warrior.

It was a two on one, a seemingly one sided fight in favour of the saiyans, but the warrior deflected everything coming his way like it was nothing. The warrior extended his arms out and using his ki, sent out a shockwave that hurled the saiyans away from him.

Gine looked to her scouter, "Power level three thousand?" She thought out loud. Anxiety started to well up inside her, it was clear that they were in some trouble. This guy was strong and everyone was still worn out from the great ape transformation the night before.

Tora and Selipa were back up and then flew forward towards the warrior. The lone fighter readied himself and bent down into a stance with one hand forward and his staff in the other, tucked underneath his arm.

As the Saiyans approached, they shot a glance to each other and before they reached him, arced out and away from him at the last second. Then, before the warrior could react, Bardock's fist slammed into the back of his head and was sent flying forwards, head first. Using his momentum, the warrior twirled and instead landed steady on his feet some distance away from Bardock.

Tora and Selipa landed next to Bardock followed by his other squad members.

"It's just like you to be rushing off into battle like that Doc, you're lucky I had your ass covered." Tora told him

"I had it under control."

"Yeah sure."

Tora turned towards the cloaked fighter. "Alright so it seems you're pretty good if your able to take us on, but remember, we ain't at full power."

"Not that it would matter, I will defeat all of you whether you had your full strength or not." The Warrior replied.

"You're a pretty cocky guy, aren't ya?" Tora remarked. "There's no way you're one of these birds, you're way too strong."

"You are correct, I am not from this planet. My order sent me here to defend these people."

"Heh, yeah you did a real good job making sure these guys stayed alive," Tora mocked while gesturing to the dead bird-creatures.

"I was off-world, it was my mistake to believe these people were safe for a little while."

The combatants stared each other down for a moment before Tora spoke again.

"You got a name? And take off that hood, I like to see the faces of my enemies before I crush em'."

"Very well," the lone warrior pulled back his hood to reveal a light blue, scaled face, with long pointy ears, and a long fin that ran across the top of his head. "I am called Trout."

"Ugh, ugly thing, aren't you?" Shugesh mocked.

"And you lot are an insult to your race."

Tora chuckled, "Okay then fish face,"

"Trout,"

" _Fish face_ ," Tora corrected. "You wanna' keep this banter up or are we gonna' fight?"

"By all means." Trout bent back down into a fighting stance, "Let us continue."

Trout was the first to move. He shot forward and launched a few ki blasts in the middle of the group. Each of the saiyans leaped out of the way in multiple directions to avoid the blasts. He landed in between the saiyans, having now been separated into two groups, and swung his staff towards the direction of one group, creating a fierce wind that blew them back. Then, he leaped towards the other group and swung his staff at each, knocking each of them away.

Bardock cursed. This guy was really starting to piss him off. He launched towards Trout and began trading blows with him. The other saiyans, save Gine, also joined the fight. They each took turns rushing forward and being knocked away effortlessly.

* * *

Gine watched with a stunned look as her comrades were slowly being beat down by this seemingly untouchable foe. She felt useless just standing in the sidelines, she ahd to think off a way to help. But how? This guy was way out of her league. Gine wasn't dumb, she knew how to pick her battles. However, Gine could not watch her friends be pummeled any longer. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind.

Gine scanned the area looking for her solution. Looking towards the fallen bodies of the avian creatures. Then she saw a small metallic glint peering out from under a dead soldier. _There!_ She sprinted over to the fallen bird-soldier and lifted him off the metallic object. Letting out a silent cheer as she found the device intact. She picked up a cylindrical metallic device with one handle connected to a trigger, and another to be used as a grip. There was a red glass piece on the top of the device that functioned as a sight for aiming. She carried it in both hands and placed one end under her arm. She'd seen the soldiers use these super powered blasters during the conquest, and they were _very_ dangerous to the saiyans. Mostly since their scouters couldn't pick up the energy these weapons shot off.

This Trout guy appeared to be able to know when their attacks were coming without the aid of a scouter somehow. But he won't be able to see this one coming. She held the red glass sight up to her right eye. Now, if she could only get him distracted for a moment…

* * *

Bardock hurled to the ground having been blindsided by Trout's staff, again. He rose to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth. He watched as the others desperately tried to land a single hit on the guy with no luck. _"Damn, this guy is good!"_ He thought. Any other time he would been thrilled to have such a challenge, but right now he was tired and worn out from the great ape transformation, and was sick of looking at the blue sky of this world. He wanted to go back to Vegeta and relax for a few days, but _this jackass_ just had to be in the way!

In the corner of his eye Bardock caught Gine lifting one of those blasters the soldiers of this planet used. He instantly caught on to her idea. If those things could hurt them, they'll wreak havoc on this guy. He needed to distract Trout somehow so Gine could make her shot.

He quickly flew up to level himself with Trout as he knocked Borgos down with his fist.

"Alright Trout, let's see you block this one!" Bardock called out. He pulled one hand back gathered as much energy as he could muster into head. His hand started to glow a whiteish-blue. The other saiyans reeled back, not wanting to get in the way of this attack.

Trout readied himself for Bardock's blast, focusing entirely on him.

" _Perfect!"_ Bardock thought.

"Now to end this!" He roared and launched to the attack forward. The attack barreled towards trout at great speeds. Trout readied a hand to deflect, only to watch in bewilderment as the attack arced upwards suddenly just as it was about to strike him, and exploded high in the sky, painting the scene a brilliant bright blue.

Trout looked towards Bardock, "You missed."

"No I didn't."

"It seems your feeble mind doesn't under-RAAGH."

Trout cried out in agony as he felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see that a small hole had pierced the right side of his chest. "They got me," Trout rasped as he dropped out of the air, hitting the ground with a hard ' _thud_ '.

Bardock waved towards Gine. "Nice shot kid,"

She saluted back, "Thanks for distracting him."

Bardock landed down to where Trout was now on his hands and knees, violently coughing up blood.

"It seems you weren't paying attention," Bardock mocked.

" _Damn all of you!"_ Trout spat.

"Alright fish brains, you're finished, we won. Now stay still and die like the people you failed to protect."

The other saiyans landed around where Bardock and Trout where. "Tora," Bardock said, "I'm all out of energy, you finish this guy off for me, cool?"

"Sure, thing Captain," Tora raised a hand out in front of him. "Well it was fun while it lasted."

"Not now! Not by you beasts!" Trout reached into his pocket and then slammed his hand into the ground, creating a thick plume of smoke.

Tora shot a blast into the cloud of smoke, only to have it pass right through and fly into some nearby buildings.

The smoke cleared, and Trout was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit," Shugesh cursed, "Where'd the bastard run off to this time?"

"Check your scouters, he's injured, he couldn't have gone far!" Bardock commanded. They scanned for a while, but Trout could not be found. Hey each waited a while longer, waiting to see if Trout had any more attacks up his sleeve. When nothing happened, they all relaxed.

Bardock sighed as he sat down on a large rock.

"You still think kids could have handled this one Doc?" Selipa asked.

"Nah probably not. I can now see why they had so much trouble with this damn place. But it still doesn't erase the fact it took us five days to kill those birds!" Bardock scorned.

"Haha, lighten up Captain, will ya?" Tora said while giving Bardock a light slap on the back. He jerked forward, clearly having been worn out from the fight.

The sun was beaming down upon them, it was well into the morning now. A gentle breeze rolled through the destroyed city, running through the trees left standing, swaying their leaves. It was quiet, the only sounds being from the soft winds and the smoldering remains of the building. The smell of death hung heavy in the air.

"Hey, you guys about ready to get off this dump?" Bardock asked.

"Yeah," spoke Shugesh, "This place is dead anyway."

Gine spewed blood from her mouth as she felt a sharp pain in her stomach.

"GINE!" someone called, she didn't know, her mind was fuzzy.

Looking down she saw one end of Trout's staff protruding from her abdomen, slicked red with her own blood.

"Oh,"

 **A/N**

 **Ah, much better!**

 **Well, that was the first chapter to my first fanfic! I've had this idea in my head for about two years now and I finally decided to get it down in writing. Since this was my first time writing anything non-academic since the ninth grade, my abilities to tell a story kind of suck. Some questions:**

 **How was the pacing? too fast? Too slow?**

 **Did the story flow well? Or was it too jumbled? What can I do to Improve the flow?**

 **How was the action sequence? Too rushed? Or perhaps too dragged out?**

 **Grammar, spelling, and syntax. What were some common mistakes?**

 **Dialogue , Too stale? Out of Character? Too much of it? What can I do to improve?**

 **How were the descriptions? Could you paint a good picture of what was happening in your mind?**

 **That's about it, I'll see you when I see you!**

 **Peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: If you read the first chapter when it was originally posted, give it a quick re-read, it's different now.**

Chapter 2

 _ **The Battle Continues! The Power of a Raged Saiyan!**_

Gine spat out another mouthful of blood as she fell to her knees. Trout's staff still impaling her through her abdomen,

"Eye for an eye…good thing…you were such an easy target," Trout said, breathing heavily.

"GINE!" Bardock called out again.

Trout dislodged his weapon from Gine as she fell forward onto her face, unconscious from blood loss. Using his staff as a balance, Trout turned to face the others, one bloody hand covering his chest wound. "Come saiyans, come die like this one here," he taunted. Looking to the side he was just able to catch Tora sprinting towards him. Tora threw a punch, and Trout dodged, striking the back of the tall saiyan's head with the side of his hand. Tora fell to the ground, unmoving.

Coming up behind, Borgos cupped both hands together and brought them down on the seemingly unsuspecting Trout, only to strike air as Trout disappeared once more. Borgos was then sent reeling sideways as Trout's black metal staff struck him upside the head.

Bardock clenched is teeth. 'This, BASTARD!' he screamed internally. The rage was starting to build up inside him, his veins were flooding with adrenaline. His power rose steadily, fast approaching it's limit as the ground around him started to crack and quake.

Shugesh and Selipa rushed in behind one another, Trout kicked one away, twirled and struck the other with his shin. Both were sent flying backwards. "All too easy," Trout said to himself. He tensed, bringing a hand to his still bleeding chest wound. Wheezing, he fell to one knee, his injuries were starting to take a heavy toll on him. Trout knew that he could no longer fight efficiently in his current condition, this battle needed to end right away.

He then heard a ferocious yell, looking to one side he saw the last Saiyan left standing, the palm haired one. He could practically feel the seething rage that radiated off the scarred warrior. Trout stuck his staff into the ground and braced himself, ready for the eventual explosive attack.

Bardock let out one more battle cry and launched forward, the ground beneath him shattered as he blasted off. He readied his hand behind him for one powerful punch.

Trout cried out too, as he launched himself forward. Mirroring Bardock's movements as he readied his own punch. Time seemed to slow as the warriors approached each other. A large trail of dust following each of the warriors as they flew towards each other. Then, their fists connected, creating an explosive shockwave that tore up the ground and blew away everything around them. The other Saiyan's, save Gine, having recuperated, were blown off their feet. The dust cleared, but the ground still shook as the two warriors traded blows.

Bardock dodged and struck, a raging fire was shining in his eyes. Every hit the Saiyan received seemed to not register as he was blinded in his rage. Trout noticed. 'I can't keep this up much longer, damn saiyan!' the mysterious warrior thought. Trout was breathing more heavily now, his strikes were getting sloppier, and had less power too them.

"YOU'RE STARTING TO SLIP, FISH BRAINS!" Bardock roared as he continued his relentless barrage of punches and kicks while his opponent desperately blocked and dodged, not having a chance to counter. This continued for a short while until finally, the palm haired saiyan broke through the mysterious warrior's guard. Now finding an opening, Bardock drew back his arm and threw his fist forward with all his raged filled power behind it, striking Trout in his stomach. Trout immediately was sent rocketing high into the sky at blinding speeds, dissipating the clouds he passed through, until he could no longer be seen.

Bardock was breathing heavily, his rage still flowing through his veins. He stood still for some time, hands clenched tightly at his sides and teeth barred. He turned to his gaze towards his injured comrades, his anger cooling off. He rushed towards the most injured one, Gine, who was lying unconscious in a pool of her own blood. He checked her pulse and breathed a small sigh of relief

"Good still alive," he said. He looked towards his other squad members, seeing they were mostly okay, at most some broken bones but nothing serious. He picked Gine up bridal style, her body fell limp in his arms.

"Everybody to your pods, now!" Bardock ordered. Each of his squad members rose sluggishly, nursing their injuries. Bardock took off into the air, he used his scouter to track the location of Gine's pod. Blood was still leaking from her wound, staining the Captain's armour red. It was a race against time. If he didn't get Gine into her pod soon, she was going to bleed out.

Like hell he was going to let that happen to one of his squad mates!

He boosted his speed even further, going far past the sound barrier of the planet. He was hyper-alert as more adrenaline was pumped through his body.

'Damnit Gine, why'd ya' have to land so far away?' he thought.

At last, her pod came into view. He tried to decrease his speed but was unable to in time resulting in him crashing into the side of a cliff nearby, making sure he turned his body so he would take most of the impact. He raced to her pod and slammed a hand onto the top, opening the hatch of the small round ship. He placed Gine into her pod as he rummaged around the storage compartments for the emergency medical supplies.

"Why the hell does Gine keep all this junk in her storage unit?" he commented. Gine was a strange Saiyan. While all the other members of the warrior race were entirely focused on fighting, Gine had taken an interest in technology and gadgets. Often, after conquests, she would scavange for some 'cool tech', as she'd like to say, from the defeated races and stored them into her pod for later research. Although she often forgot about them, resulting in her personal pod being overly cluttered.

Bardock was growing frustrated as he searched for the med-kit, throwing many small gadgets onto the ground behind him. "Damn thing, WHERE IS IT!"

After seemingly endless digging he finally pulled out a small metal box. He opened the box and retrieved a tank of green-gel. He stuck the spout of the tank into her wound and released a lever, causing the gel to flood into the injury and quickly seal up the hole.

"Good thing for this bio-gel stuff." Bardock said with a sigh.

Leaning into Gine's pod, Bardock set the coordinates for Planet Vegeta and activated the emergency stasis. He watched the hatch close as the pod lifted into the air, then blasting off towards the intended destination.

He stayed there for a moment, staring off into space.

"Hey, Captain, you done? We're ready to leave," he heard Tora say from his scouter.

"Yeah, let's get outta here,"

* * *

 **Two weeks later.**

 **Planet Vegeta, Age 730**

Gine groaned, a splitting headache was pounding in her head. Her hearing felt strange, she tried opening her eyes but quickly shut them when she felt them sting. She wasn't lying down, she realized, but more in a crouching position, her body felt like it was suspended in some sort of thick liquid. She reached to her face and felt some sort of mask connected to a tube covering her mouth. ' _Oh! I'm in a healing tank!...Why?'_ She thought. There was a loud beeping noise, and the liquid surrounding her started to drain. The glass hatch lifted and she stepped out. She felt dizzy and almost fell over, but quickly caught herself. She was still wearing her armour. With a quick inspection she noticed a huge hole in the armour where her stomach was.

' _Oh yeah, that fish guy stabbed me'_ She remembered.

"You might have some trouble walking straight for a little while," Gine jumped at the sudden voice not realizing there was anyone else in the room. "You lost a lot of blood, it's a miracle we got you here in time," said a short green skinned, reptilian alien with an orange mohawk.

"Yeah, I guess I can thank you for that Malaka," She replied.

"Hmph, at least you appreciate my hard work, you brutes always go and destroy your bodies and little old Malaka is always here to put you guys back together, but do I get much thanks? Nooo, most I get is a grunt and a hand wave, a death threat some of the time," The short green alien paused his rant and looked toward the Gine, who looked at him with an awkward expression. He sighed.

"Alright listen, just take it easy for a little bit, maybe skip your next mission. I know you're not the most durable Saiyan around, I don't want to see you get any permanent damage okay?" he said.

"Will do, now I actually have a legitimate excuse to get out of a mission." She laughed.

"There's a fresh set of armour in the corner for you, I'll step out so you can get settled." Malaka said.

The small alien stepped out, leaving Gine alone in the room with her thoughts. As Gine dawned her frsh suit of armour, thoughts of the battle came flooding into her mind. Ever since she joined Bardock's squad, the amount of times her life had been at stake has gone up dramatically. When she was placed on other teams, the races she helped purged were weak and defensless, most of them had very low levels of technology as well. Even when her previous captains would abandon her on the battle field, she was at no real risk of death. But as part of Bardock's elite, every mission she would find herself in a great amount of trouble. There were countless amounts of times where she ahd been overwhelemed and was saved last second by Bardock. The most recent mission was the closest she had eevr come to actually dying.

Gine sighed as she remembered just how _useless_ she was on the battlefield. Everyone else was endlessly throwing themselves back into the battle trying to defeat the mysterious warrior, and she just sat on the sidelines, dojng nothing except stare in disbelief at the strength Trout showed. Sure, she was able to actually injure him, but that was a lucky shot, and it wasn't even using her own strength to do it, just some device. What happens when she faces off against a race whose _entire population_ is that strong? Not even Bardock will be able to save her then.

This battle also made her realise something else. The rest of her team was progressing except herself. She saw how strong everyone one had become in recent times, they were faster, more effective fighters, yet she was still…herself. When Gine first joined the team, Bardock had put her through a rigorous training regimen that did improve her fighting skills to some degree, but recently she'd been really slacking off, possibly only training occasionally. Though, It wasn't all her fault, she was always away on missions, there was no time to train. A true saiayn warrior is able to adapt and become stronger from battle alone. Yet, she wasn't.

 _Maybe I'm not cut out for this, maybe I should just qui-_

Gine was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard the short doctor yelling at someone outside the door.

"Hey, you can't go in there yet!" Malaka excalimed

"Move out of my way!" She heard a rough voice say.

 _It's Bardock!_

The door slid open, and Bardock stepped into the room, a disgruntled look on his face. Malaka followd in behind him.

"Ah Gine, I see you've finished changing, let me take those tattered clothes then,"

"Hey, lizard, beat it. I have to talk with her," Bardock stated sternly.

The reptilian doctor sighed, "Alright, alright, I'm going. You Saiyans and your attitudes," He said, mumbling the last part.

The green alien exited the room, leaving the two comrades alone. Bardock walked towards a wall and leaned against it, looking away from Gine.

"How ya' feeling?" He asked

A small blush appeared on Gine's face, "Aww, are you worried about me?"

"Not at all, we're leaving on our next mission soon and I want to know if you're ready."

Gine scoffed, her face becoming visibly irritated,

"Of-course that's the reason, you jerk!" she spat.

"Well? Are you ready or not?" Bardock asked impatiently.

She huffed and crossed her arms, "Well, the doctor said that since I lost a lot of blood I have to skip the next mission."

"No."

"Excuse me!?"

"I said no,"

"Well why not!? You want me to die?"

Now it was Bardock's turn to scoff, "Gine you're a Saiyan, stop being so soft, a little blood loss won't kill you." He looked her straight in the eye, "And you're part of my team, and since I'm the captain whatever I say goes, Understand?" He said harshly.

The two became quiet, both avoiding looking at each other. Then Gine broke the silence.

"What happened," She started softly, "After I blacked out?"

"I sent that bastard straight to hell, then I took you to your pod and sent you away, that's it really."

The blush returned to her face, "Aww, that was sweet of you."

Bardock scoffed and looked away.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"For what?"

"For saving me…..again."

"Y-yeah, whatever, if you weren't such a crap fighter I wouldn't have to waste my time looking after you anyway," Bardock said.

Gine giggled, "You know you enjoy it," she teased.

"Tch, whatever," He dismissed, his cheeks turning a small tinge of pink.

"Anyways, here," Bardock tossed Gine a new scouter.

"what's this for?" she asked

"I had everyone's scouter replaced, for some reason that guy's power level kept dropping and rising so I figured they were all busted. These are newer models. Make sure you calibrate it for our next mission."

"I'm not going on the next mission."

"Gine, stop with this," he growled.

"We are allowed breaks after traumatic injuries Bardock, I won't get in trouble, I don't know why you're so insistent on me going on every mission."

"Look Gine, I'm trying to get us to the Elites, all of us. How do you expect to get any stronger if you're just going to blow off important missions like this?"

"How do you know it's an important mission?" she retorted.

"Well, I-"

"Do you even know what the mission is?" Gine cut in.

"No, but-"

"So, then it's not important,"

"Every mission is important when someone is as worthless as you!" he blurted out, letting his irritation get the better of him. Bardock cringed when he saw Gine's bottom lip start to quiver, a hurt expression clear on her face. 'Damnit, here we go again!' he internally berated himself.

"Well, if I'm so worthless," she started, her voice cracking slightly, "Then maybe I shouldn't be a fighter at all." With that she stormed out of the room, shrugging off Bardock's attempt to halt her.

Bardock tried to follow her, but then stopped when he heard his scouter buzz, indicating someone was trying to contact him.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Squad leader Bardock," he tensed up when he heard the voice.

"You are to report to headquarters for debriefing on your latest assignment," said a commanding voice. One that he knew could only belong to his mission coordinator, Commander Dive, or as Bardock liked to call him, 'Asshole.' Bardock let out a long sigh, this was about to be a long day.

 **A/N**

 **Okay It's been a long time, but I finally decided to write again. This chapter was going to include a lot more but I decided to save it for later.**

 **See you soon! (maybe.)**

 **It's November 26, 2017 and I have updated this chapter to include some other stuff, I'm hard at work on the next chapter (Not really) and it will be out sometime in the future if anyone cares.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey do you guys like my story?**

Chapter 3: A new life.

Bardock stomped into the Mission Headquarters, his face written with annoyance. He really, really did not want to be here. Commander Dive wasn't known to be the easiest man to talk to. He was probably one of the most hot-headed Saiyans around, making Bardock try his best to minimize any sort of contact between them. If he knew being team leader meant he had to talk to this guy after every mission, he would have gladly given up his chance for leadership.

Bardock hurried down the dull, stone-gray lobby, approaching a receptionist who was leaning back in his seat, with a smug look on his face. Behind the receptionist was the door to the Commander's office.

"Well well, if it ain't the super third class himself, better hurry Bardock, you don't want to keep the Commander waiting, especially after your guys last mission," taunted the receptionist.

"Stuff it Niono, I don't have time for your crap, tell the Commander I'm here to see him,"

"One question first, what's going on with you and Gine, you in some kind of relationship? Tough guys like you don't bother themselves with those things, you should leave her to me, I'll-."

Niono didn't get to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by Bardock's fist hitting his face.

Bardock walked past the crumpled form of Niono clutching his now broken nose and marched into the Commanders office.

Bardock placed his hand to his chest and bowed forward, "Commander Dive, sir."

"Ah, Bardock, you're here early," said the Commander

 _No shit, if I was even a second late you'd rip you're desk in half._

The commander cleared his throat and leaned his elbows forward on his desk.

"About your most recent mission, the report says it took you and your team five days to clear planet Dirb,"

 _Oh here we go_

"Post mission inspection showed there was a considerable amount of damage to the worlds surface, tell me Captain, was there a full moon while you were there?"

"Yes sir, it happened on our fifth night,"

The Commander let out a heavy sigh, "You do realize, Captain Bardock, that this planet was a very valuable one due to the natural beauty of the world's surface?" The Commander's voice was starting to raise.

"Yes sir, I had read that in the mission briefing,"

"So then why did you and your team of imbeciles rip the planet's surface to pieces!?" The Commander was yelling now, and he was up and out of his seat, his face red with anger.

"There are craters all over the place, the lush forests and green grasslands have been burned to a crisp, do you not Understand how much value we lost on this world!? This was going to be one of our most profitable planets to date and you ruffians absolutely destroyed it. Lord Frieza is not going to be happy about this, no, not at all!"

Bardock looked on ahead, honestly, he was expecting this. No matter how well Bardock and his team did on a mission, Commander Dive always had something to nitpick about. Bardock was surprised that he was even able to keep himself composed all this time. It took a considerable amount of willpower for Bardock not to just walk up to the commander and punch his damn face in! The palm haired warrior also realized doing just that would get him killed. Commander Dive wasn't a commander for no reason, he was part of the upper mid-class, which meant he was very powerful.

Dive sat back down into his chair and put a hand to his forehead and sighed.

"Damages aside, if you will, give me a quick rundown of what happened during the mission,"

"It was an easy one. Weak creatures, the strongest barely above one-hundred in battle power. They had decent technology that stung when we got hit, probably coulda' killed us too if we weren't careful. There was a lotta' those birds, that's why it took so long. We woulda' taken longer but I decided to take advantage of the full moon. After that we cleared them all, then this guy showed up, tough, but we got him, then I_"

"Stop," Dive interrupted, "This warrior, tell me more."

"He was strong, and incredibly fast, I don't know why but we couldn't get a proper read on his power level, it kept jumping all over the place. We all woulda' died if it weren't for one well-placed shot, but I-,"

"What did he look like?"

"Tall, blue scaled skin, looked like some kinda' fish. He wore a brown cloak, carried a black metal staff,"

The commander sighed, "So, it was true then."

"What was?"

"There was a rumor that the Planet Dirb was guarded by an intensely strong fighter that did not originate from that world, it was said it was responsible for the failed invasions."

This sparked some interest from Bardock, if command knew about him then why wasn't he informed? They all could have died during that mission, and one of them almost did. Bardock clenched his teeth, it was just like them to be hiding information from them. The higher levels didn't care about the wellbeing of the third-class, Bardock had always known this. Of course, they would try to sabotage a team that was finally starting to show their worth.

"In any case, I'd like to congratulate you on the success of this mission."

 _Wait, what?_

Bardock was dumbfounded, was he receiving _praise_ from the commander?

"This mission was not supposed to be a successful one, in fact, you were sent in for more of an investigative role, the Frieza Force couldn't beat that mysterious warrior, so they shipped the job to us," he explained.

"This mission was apparently not a desirable, we tried to get a few elite teams to take this one, but they refused, saying it wasn't in their best interests. Since the elites refused the mission they passed it on to me to assign to a third-class team, and I knew that if there was any third-class team that would get the job done, it was yours. And I have to say, I am certainly impressed that you all came back in once piece, you surely put the rest of the elites to shame from your display, well done."

"Thank you, sir, I always make sure that my squad puts out the best performance on every mission,"

 _Jackass._

"I hope so, I'll send you the debrief of your next assignment, you have ten hours for R&R, make sure your team is ready for this one, it's another mission the elites refused. I hope you're up for the challenge,"

"Always, Commander,"

"Good, you're dismissed."

Bardock saluted the commander then was about to leave before the Commander stopped him.

"Bardock, one more thing,"

"I am to understand that Gine was gravely injured on the battlefield, is that correct?"

"It was a surprise attack, I couldn't stop it,"

"No matter, ensure this does not happen again, or there _will_ be consequences," the commander said in a threatening tone.

Bardock nodded before turning around and marching out of the room, a sour look on his face. As he walked, he couldn't help but feel his mood elevating. Finally, they were being recognized for all the hard work they put in. If the commander recommended them for a mission that even the elites wouldn't take, then surely their goal of reaching that level was close to their grasps. The fact that they hid some valuable information from them though….

Bardock immediately dismissed the conspiracy theories, he can think about that later.

Bardock knew one thing for certain though, these missions were going to get a lot harder, which meant that his team and himself needed to be at their top performance at all times if the wanted to survive. There was another problem as well.

 _Gine._

He didn't want to admit it, due to his growing affection for the timid Saiyan, but Gine was a liability to his team's success. He knew that she was awful at fighting, and she didn't have the drive that motivated a Saiyan for battle. He started to get a little worried about her. The missions are getting harder, and Gine just wasn't getting strong enough to continue.

Bardock quickly cleared his mind of these thoughts. Why did he even care? It's not his problem that Gine wasn't the warrior she is meant to be.

 _Look what she's got me doing, worrying and stuff._

Bardock marched on, he had to inform his teammates of the news, he knew they would be happy to hear this.

* * *

Gine stared off at nothing in particular as she sat on a cliff overlooking the capital city. She didn't know how long she'd been there, probably a long time since she'd arrived when the planets suns were highest in the sky, and now the last of their light rays were peeking out from the horizon, painting the clouds a rich orange colour. A gentle breeze rolled through the tall vegetation around her, giving a nice cool feeling to contrast the heat of the two suns.

This was Gine's favourite place to relax and think, get away from all her troubles. She'd usually come here after every mission and stare off into the sky, or marvel at the majesty of the Royal palace.

It was peaceful, and quiet. And right now, she had a lot of thinking to do. In fact, that's all she had been doing this entire time. Thinking of her race, of her team, her relationship with Bardock. Right now, the main thing she thought about was what her team captain had said to her.

 _Worthless._

He was right. That's all she was, worthless. She couldn't fight. Sure, she was good at other non-fighting things, but a Saiyan who can't fight is just,

 _Worthless._

She can't continue like this, going from mission to mission until she gets killed in battle. Which, judging by the last mission, is an all too likely possibility that is bound to happen soon. She wished she didn't have to live life this way. She wished she could follow her true passions in life.

Gine was always interested in technology. How it worked, how it all fit together. It was all incredibly fascinating to her. Instead of training she would often spend her downtime between missions tinkering with gadgets she collected from other worlds, or read various books on scientific topics. But saiyans weren't supposed to care about that stuff. It was all battle and strength, nothing else. Gine hated this, she wanted nothing more than to escape the societal pressures that plagued her constantly. That was only a distant fantasy, just as likely as her becoming an elite-class warrior.

 _Wait, yeah. That's it! I'll ask for early retirement!_

There was a system in place that allowed for saiyans who have been serving for a long time to request for retirement from the military. Which was heavily underused since a true Saiyan would never want to give up fighting. Usually it would be if they were getting too old, which was extremely rare as saiyans always died in battle, or if they suffered an injury that permanently disabled them. Which was also a rare occurrence due to the advanced medical technology of the Cold Empire that the saiyans had access to. But she knew she could at least try to suggest it, with her record, she knew that she would be allowed to retire, and start the life she'd always wanted, away from battle.

The only problem was convincing her mission coordinator, Commander Dive, to let her leave. Which was pretty much impossible. But she had to at least try. Gine rose to her feet and took off into the air towards the mission headquarters.

* * *

"Hey Gine, looking good today, why don't you come out for drinks with me tonight, huh? Maybe I'll take ya back to my place and we can see what happens," Niono said suggestively

"Stuff it Niono, and what happened to your face? Fall down the stairs again?" She said, pointing at his bandaged nose.

"Your stupid brute did this to me when I asked about you! He put me through a lot of pain, in fact, you should really be tending to my injury since you're partly responsible, come by my apartment after my shift whaddya say?"

Gine laughed, "Well maybe I should just bring Bardock along with me since you clearly didn't get his message the first time,"

Niono tensed,

"W-whatever then! Just go see the commander already,"

Gine shot him a smug look before walking into Commander Dive's office,

She placed a hand to her chest and bowed forward.

"Commander Dive, thank you for meeting with me today," she stated respectfully.

The Commander sighed, "You better not be wasting my time, Gine."

"Sir, I'd like to request an early retirement from-"

SLAM!

Gine flinched at the sound of the Commander smacking his hand on the metal desk.

"You're. Not. Quitting!" he seethed.

"But sir I-"

SLAM!

The commander struck his metal desk again with his fist, visibly denting the hard metal surface.

Gine's eyes were glued to the floor and she was trying her very hardest not to cry. Gine always had this problem, she could yell and scream at anyone but as soon as anyone did the same to her, she would break down. And she hated that about herself. She wished she could be strong, had the resolve like everyone else, like a normal Saiyan.

But she wasn't a normal Saiyan, she was a failure, a liability, _useless._

Crying in front of the Commander would only make her situation far worse.

"My brother trusted me to make you into a suitable warrior and I will honour his dying wish!"

"But sir, you don't understand, I'm not a capable warrior, I'm only a hazard to my team!" Gine countered.

"Who's telling you this? Is it that Bardock? I swear I'll rip out his lungs if that's the case!"

"N-no no, he didn't tell me anything, in fact he wants me to stay. I'm making this decision on my own."

"And what will you do, hm? Work in a factory, or be a palace servant? Clean Garbage off the street!? I will not have my own blood lower themselves to such filth!"

"Well I mean, palace servants get paid quite a lot so.." she said in a small voice, avoiding eye contact with the hot headed Commander.

Dive was now up and out of his seat; his face was red with anger.

"What kind of Saiyan are you? You don't want to fight? You only like reading those stupid textbooks, and wasting away your time tinkering with gadgets. If I was your father I would have abandoned you on the streets when you were first born! To hell with his stupid sentimental tendencies! "

The Commander sat back down in his chair, slouching forward with one hand placed to his fore head.

He sighed, "Gine, Listen," he started in a softer tone,

"You're my only niece, and I've sacrificed so much for you, I'm the reason you weren't sent off as an infiltrator baby when you were young, I'm the reason you got to live in that large apartment of yours and not on the streets after your father died. Stay in the military, if not for me, then do it for your father. That's all I ask,"

"Alright, I'll stay,"

"Good. We won't have this conversation again, am I clear?" He stated sternly.

"Yes sir," she replied.

Gine placed a closed fist to her chest and bowed forward before exiting.

She rushed out of the building. Tears were streaming down her face. She was extremely frustrated. That was her only chance at starting a new life, now it was all ruined. She could never escape battle. It was a Saiyan's life. Her uncle was a jerk. And bringing up the memory of her late father hurt, the way he spoke about him showed just how little he knew about his brother. Memories of her father came flooding back into her mind, it made her heart ache. He was the best person she'd ever known. He was gentle, compassionate, most of all a proud Saiyan warrior. Like herself, Gine's father was different from the rest. He cared about her a great deal.

She remembered how he'd come home from each mission and they would stay up late together while he told her stories of his experiences in space. He'd then present her with various gifts he'd gotten from his travels. She remembered how he used to tuck her into bed every night and he wouldn't leave until she had fallen asleep. She remembered how understanding he was when she told him that she didn't want to be a warrior, he never got mad, he wasn't disappointed, he respected her decision, even though she was just a small girl who didn't know what affect her decisions had on her life.

She remembered when he left one day and never came back.

It was a failed mission; her uncle was the only one that survived it and made it back to planet Vegeta. She'd cry every night and look outside her front window waiting, hoping that it wasn't true and that any day her father would touch down in front of her house and call out her name like he'd done for seven years of her life. But he never did.

She didn't know her mother, her uncle was completely unsympathetic, and as far as she knew she didn't have any siblings or cousins. So, she was left alone in her grief.

Her uncle was kind enough to take responsibility for her instead of being placed in an orphanage. He'd always been mean. Dive would yell at her to stop crying about her dead father, telling her that he was too weak and that's why he died. As soon as he'd taken over caring for her he immediately placed her with a random team, and whenever they'd reject her, which was only after a mission or two, her uncle would get mad at her, blaming it on her being weak, and stating that if she'd continue to be the way she was she'd end up dead on some backwater world like her father.

She hated the way he treated her, but he was the only family she had left.

Gine stopped to wipe the tears away from her face and let out a heavy sigh. Deciding on preparing for her next mission since she knew she wasn't getting out of it this time.

It was time to stop making excuses, she'd decided. This was the life she was going to live. One day she was going to die on some backwater world, she'd accepted her fate already. It was the life she was doomed to lead.

* * *

"So, the Commander actually praised us for once?" Tora said, surprised about the recent revelation.

"I was just as surprised as you are," Bardock said before downing the drink in his hands. Him and his team were relaxing in one of the many pubs located in the capital city in Vegeta. They'd go to one before every mission to de-stress.

"Well, it's about damn time we are getting recognized for our hard work," said Shugesh, "and to think, those stuck up elites wouldn't even take this one,"

"I'd say we are right on track to becoming elites," Tora spoke.

"Kinda strange they decided to keep the info on that Trout guy a secret though," said Selipa.

"Yeah, that's what bugs me," Bardock agreed.

"Isn't it obvious?" each of the team members turned towards the usually quiet Borgos.

"We are a third-class team that is clearing worlds at a faster rate than anybody else, we are a threat to their status. If some group of low levels can outperform the elites of our race, then they shouldn't be considered elites at all. The higher levels want to make sure that the third class stay the third class."

Shugesh slammed his mug on the table, "Of course that's it! These damn elites, always tryna keep us down,"

"You know you've been really insightful lately big guy. Kinda scaring me," Selipa said towards Borgos, who only grunted in response.

The group of low-class warriors started to talk amongst themselves, swapping theories and expressing their general displeasure with the saiyan societal hierarchy and discontent with the Frieza empire. Bardock stayed on the outside of the conversation, not wanting to participate. A certain absent group member was currently on his mind. He tried contacting her, but she wouldn't respond. Bardock wondered if she was even going to show up to the docking station. He didn't really think she would.

Bardock's eyes drifted away from his squad, he could see others in the bar were looking their way, clearly taking some interest in their conversation. Bardock instantly realized this could mean trouble, if the wrong person heard what they were saying…

He slammed his hand on the table to alert his team.

"Listen, no matter what the case is it doesn't matter to us. The only thing we need to worry about is our assignments. Speaking of which, it's about time we get going, it's a long trip to this next world, and I want to get there as soon as possible."

They all agreed and immediately rose from their seats and left the entablement.

They walked to the docking station with little urgency. The members of Bardock's elite, save the Captain and Borgos, chatted away with each other on random topics, sill clearly in their relaxation mode. As they walked though, they started to take notice on their absent member as well.

"Hey, Captain. What happened with you and Gine?" Selipa asked.

"None of your business,"

"Oh c'mon Doc, let me guess, you and her got in a huge fought again? And that's why she told us she was quitting the team?" Tora teased.

"What, she said that? Never mind, just drop it, okay? She's coming with us,"

"I'm not so sure about that Captain. Face it, she's not able to keep up with us, you should just kick her off, it's better for all of us," Selipa added.

"She's part of this team and if I say she's staying then she's staying!" Bardock roared. He was fed up with his squad's useless banter.

The team continued towards their pods. As they approached they all became increasingly stern as they all focused on the battle to come. When they got to where their pods were docked they were all surprised to see Gine waiting there for them.

"Gine? You're here?" Bardock said

"Yeah, we have to leave for an assignment, don't we? And I know you like to leave early so I made sure to be ready as soon as possible," she replied.

"Well, look who it is! Changed your mind about quitting I see" Stated Tora.

"Yes. I am a proud Saiyan warrior, qutting is not in my nature, I will fight until my bitter end, and I will rise to the elites with you, or die trying." Her speech was very monotone, Bardock noticed, almost as if she was just repeating words she was told, like a robot. He could clearly tell that there wasn't much conviction in what she was saying. That's something he'd have to ask her later.

"Alright then," The palm haired warrior said, "Everyone to your pods!"

 **A/N:**

 **Okay, so another chapter down, a bunch more to go! I've already started the next chapter, but since it's exam season it won't be out for probably for 4 weeks minimum. Writing is hard man.**

 **See you not soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

This was a disaster.

Bardock wiped the blood from his mouth and dodged his assailants attack. He drew his fist back and slammed it into the chubby alien's chin, a sickening crack was heard and the alien flew backwards, it's head stuck in an odd position as it took its final breaths.

Bardock's victory was short-lived as three more of the aliens appeared out of the foliage and stood beside their fallen comrade. They were short, stocky, and had comically long and thick arms for their size. The extra length however gave them more reach. And despite having short legs, they were incredibly quick on their feet. Bardock couldn't understand how they could even move so fast despite being so bulky. Frankly, this race was really pissing him off. Never had he had so much trouble defeating simple fodder, but they all seemed to have some kind of trick up their sleeves. It really made this mission a lot harder than it should have been.

Right from the moment they had entered the planet's atmosphere had this mission gone down the deep end. The beings of this world apparently were ready for their attack, despite having no contact with Frieza's forces prior. They tried shooting their pods down as they landed, Bardock recalled his hull taking severe damage. Due to the air barrage, the saiyans pods had scattered around the planet. So, they would now have to spend extra time linking up with each other to properly start the invasion, it didn't help that they had to fight through a myriad of ambushes and traps. They couldn't use their scouters either, these bastards were able to scramble them. Luckily though it was only over long distances, so he was able to detect any power levels that were in his location, this helped counteract those sneaky ambushes. So currently, everyone was isolated from each other, and hordes of these menaces watched their every wake.

It only got worse. Bardock knew there was a full moon coming up, not caring much about destroying the surface at the time, what he really wanted was everyone on this planet dead. However, as soon as the moon appeared in the night sky, it was blown to bits before his very eyes. That could only mean one thing, these guys somehow knew of their Oozaru form. Which was very strange considering that no Saiyan had ever been to this planet before. They weren't even a space faring race. There was no way they could have known!

That was two weeks ago. Now Bardock was busy fighting for his life trying to get into some form of contact with his lost squad.

The soldiers he was currently fighting were part of a large group that had followed him for days, Bardock estimated there was at least fifty to a hundred in that single group, and now only three of them remained. He watched them carefully, they looked unafraid despite being clearly weaker than himself. A quick scan of their battle powers showed they numbered four-hundred, three-hundred, and two-hundred.

'Nothing special,' he thought.

All three suddenly lunged at him at the same time, their speed catching Bardock off guard. They then proceeded to send a barrage of punches and kicks at the Saiyan. Bardock ducked and dodged through their attacks, not getting any chances to hit back. As this continued he started to notice their pace was slowing down, and their attacks had less power too them. He saw a small opening and went for it, he threw a quick right hook.

Missed.

'Damnit!'

He was struck in the back of the head and was launched forward, skidding to a halt some distance away.

He quickly rose to his feet, taking a moment to eye his opponents again. They stood with their chests puffed out and appeared to be laughing at him judging from the shaking of their shoulders.

'Bastards are mocking me!'

He drew both fists back and gathered ki into each palm.

"I'll teach you to laugh at me! Here, have it!" he roared as he let out a volley of ki blasts. They quickly leapt out of harm's way, the blasts striking only the ground, kicking up dirt into the air, obscuring his field of vision. This only made Bardock angrier. He started shooting in random directions now, hoping to hit at least one of them. When he finally stopped, the forested area around him was decimated. The trees left standing were ablaze, giving a much-needed visibility boost in the dark moonless night.

Bardock quickly scanned the area, picking up all three of their powers jumping around him. Bardock decided to stay put and wait for an attack rather then pursue in the low visibility from the smoke. His scouter beeped indicating something to the left, Bardock moved just in time to dodge his assailant's fists, using the advantage, the vicious space pirate grabbed ahold of the alien's face and slammed him to the ground.

"Finally caught one of you bastards," Bardock said through a malicious grin. He gathered a large amount of ki into his other hand, he could see the alien's eyes widening in fear, which would only serve to make this kill that more satisfying.

Bardock's scouter beeped once more, but he was too slow to react as he was kicked in the side of his face and was launched backwards, his scouter being obliterated in the attack. After a moment with his face in the dirt he slowly rose to his feet and brought one shaking hand to his now scouter-less face. He balled his hands up so tight his knuckles started to turn white, his teeth were clenched, and he took deep heavy breaths. To say he was angry was an understatement. No, he wasn't angry.

He was absolutely livid.

Everything about his current situation angered him. The fact that these creatures with pathetically low power levels were able to get the jump on him was embarrassing enough, but now they just destroyed his only way of communication with everyone else.

'That's it! I'm going to make every damn one of these bastards on this shit-hole of a planet pay!'

Bardock let out a roar as he launched himself forwards at the three aliens. The sudden outburst of speed seemed to surprise them and Bardock was able to have one of them pinned. He wasn't going to take his time killing them now. He grabbed a hold of one and threw him towards one of it's comrades. He then fired a ki blast at the two, disintegrating both. As Bardock saw his attack connect, a wicked grin appeared across his scarred face. He turned his attention towards the last of his targets. This one was clearly smaller than the other two and had far less muscular definition, must have been the weakest of the three he decided.

Bardock waited for the alien to make it's move, but instead it just stood in it's place, shaking and eyes as wide as dinner plates. Bardock could practically smell the fear radiating from it. He felt good not having to work for an easy kill. The alien fell to it's knees, having given up trying to defeat the battle hardened Saiyan.

"Oh come on! You don't at least want to die fighting? Pathetic," Bardock taunted.

The alien then raised it's hand forward and shot out a weak ki blast towards him. Bardock took it head on, not even flinching.

"Huh, that's it?"

"Not quite," it spoke suddenly, as it lifted its tunic revealing many cylindrical devices strapped to it's chest.

"Hey, is that!?"

click*

BOOM

Bardock's world lit up as a huge explosion rocked the area.

* * *

Gine stared in amazement at the large mushroom cloud that formed in the forest. The shockwave caused by the blast uprooted trees and crumbled rock formations in the area. Luckily, her pod was built to withstand forces thousands of times more powerful then that blast, so she was safe in her pod.

Where she was hiding.

In fact, she had been in there the entire mission, coming out only a few times a day to gather supplies and other assorted reasons. She hadn't gone out to do anything towards completing the mission however. She didn't even know what the people of this planet looked like! This was the best course of action for herself she decided. After all, everyone was split up on the planet presumably with no way of contacting each other. Her scouter couldn't pick up any signals, nor was she even able to scan long distances for power levels. Rather than going out into the unknown facing even more unknown enemies, she'd just wait in her pod for one of her squad mates to find her.

If they were even still out there.

There was a small suspicion that sat at the back of her mind saying that maybe everyone was dead, and that she was all alone in enemy territory. Or that maybe they were forced to leave and left her behind to die on some backwater world….

No, she knew Bardock wouldn't allow that, and that recent explosion showed that there is some battle still going on meaning they must still be alive. But, it was hard not to think that way. This mission had clearly been too much for them to handle, she'd figured that out as soon as they entered the Planets atmosphere. She remembered hearing shouting over the comms about their pods being shot down before the signal for everyone was cut. She also remembered seeing the full moon once, then also seeing it be blown to pieces. Their enemy was smarter than them, and they had power to back them up, apparently.

They were all going to die here and there was nothing that could be done about it. Of course, Gine could always leave, her pod was still fully functional. But she'd never abandon her team. Gine was many things but a deserter was not one of them.

She cleared her mind of those grim thoughts. Everything was going to be just fine. Her team was still out there murdering the populace, they just had to be. Right now, there were other things to focus on, like that explosion. It was far to close to her pod than she'd liked, which means there could be some enemies nearby. Gine had to find a new place to hide as the cliff edge her pod was embedded in was far too exposed.

She opened the hatch and leapt out and remained stationary in the air over the forest, keeping watch over the now burning trees in-case there were any stalking enemies. She scanned the area with her scouter a few times just to be sure. When nothing came up she sighed.

'Guess I'm still alone,'

She hovered over to her pod, placing a hand at each side of the ship she was able to rip it out of cliff side and hoisted it over her shoulder. Turning back to the forest she took one more cautionary scan with the scouter, once again receiving no signals. She then flew off into the dark night sky.

Gine landed down on the hard-rocky ground as softly as she could, trying her hardest to make the least amount of noise. Her eyes looked all around her, making sure there was no one who had seen her. She'd taken the risk of flying high in the sky just because flying through the forest would have been far too difficult especially in this darkness. When she decided she was safe, Gine started towards the cave she had picked to be her new hiding place.

As she reached the mouth of the cave she paused for a moment, noticing a ruffling sound in the thick foliage several yards away from her. She stayed still for a while, pod still hoisted over her shoulder.

'probably just the wind,' she assured herself.

She slowly turned away but quickly swiveled her head back again when the rustling continued, along with the sounds of quick footsteps scurrying between the trees. It was pitch black out, but with Gine's heightened Saiyan vision she could make out some distinctly blacker masses that hid between the dark trees.

The dark figures vanished and there was the sound of the scurrying of feet again and Gine threw her pod behind her. Crouching down into a battle-ready stance.

"Who's there?" She called out, then quickly shunned herself. It probably wasn't the best idea to reveal yourself to potential assailants.

Or maybe they weren't enemies at all but maybe just some scared animals that were in the area. It couldn't hurt to check to make sure though….

Slowly, she brought a hand up to her scouter, which had up to this point been turned off. Her eyes darted back and forth between the treeline as the scouter scanned, when it stopped she let out a startled gasp.

Three power levels each above five-hundred.

Suddenly, three figures shot out from the treeline and rushed her. Gine was taken aback by this and was sent flying backwards from a fist hitting her face. She quickly recovered and just barely dodged an attack from her left, then avoided another from her right. The last came rushing towards her center, thinking quickly she put her hands forward and shot off a blast right at the alien, pushing him back.

Gine leapt back a few paces to put some distance between herself and her attackers. She waited a moment, making sure to get a good look at the aliens. She could see them somewhat clearly now, noticing their long arms, stocky bodies, and short legs.

'So these are the planet's natives, huh,' She wondered how such beings were even able to move so fast with such short legs. Gine's eyes narrowed, right now she had to be completely focused on her enemy. She was at a disadvantage not just from numbers but also from power.

Taking a deep breath, Gine steadied herself. 'Remember your training," she thought. She got down into a fighting stance, one that Bardock had taught her, as she inspected the three aliens standing beside each other, searching for any openings. _"If you ever find yourself outnumbered, go for the weakest."_ She remembered Bardock telling her. There was one to her left, who appeared to be plumper than the others, he even seemed to be breathing hard, and his guard was sloppy. 'That's it!'

She fired off two blasts at the other aliens and rushed towards the fat one. It tried to block, but Gine was quicker, she hit it square in it's chubby face, and it was sent reeling backwards.

"Wow I can't believe that actually worked!" she cheered, however her victory was short lived as she felt a hand grab her arm, and she was yanked inwards. She saw a fist come forward and her face was pushed sideways as she was struck right in the jaw. it's grip on her held strong as her attacker continued to hit her in the face again and again. Gine, having been dazed from the first hit, was unable to counter and was forced to take the beating. She was then swung around in a circle and felt herself being thrown into the air. She soared in the air for a moment before something hard smacked her right back down.

She crashed down into the dirt and stayed there laying on her back. Her head spun, and she felt warm liquid running down her face and through her nose. She slowly rose into a sitting position and brought a hand to wipe the blood from her face. The world suddenly became very bright and she looked up just in time to see a barrage of ki blasts coming her way. Gine crossed her arms in front of her and hoped for the best.

The blasts slammed into her and she let out a cry of pain, feeling them seer any skin that wasn't covered by her uniform. Eventually, the barrage stopped, and Gine was left in a smoking crater. She slowly got to her feet, wincing from the pain all over. The stocky aliens stood together and a deep, rumbling laugh erupted from their throats. Gine scowled. She had to think of a way to get out of this. Her attackers were far more skilled then any foe she'd faced before, other than the (one) guy. There was no way she could fight them, so there was now only one option left.

Ki flooded into Gine's hands, in order for her plan to work, she had to put as much strength into this attack, otherwise the aliens wouldn't see it as a threat. She needed them distracted for just a moment. Gine smirked as the warriors crouched down again into fighting stances, preparing themselves for the saiyan's attack. 'Perfect'

Gine pointed her hand to the upwards and shot the blast into the sky, the aliens looked up in confusion, waiting for the possibility that it might come back down onto them. When Gine saw that their attention was completely off her, she turned and sprinted off into the opposite direction.

Running was all she could do now. Gine was smart, she knew when to fight her battles, and this battle wasn't one she should fight. They were stronger, they outnumbered her; but with this lead she could only try to outrun them.

Gine carried onwards as fast as her feet could carry her, faster and faster she went, dust accumulated behind from the force of her feet hitting the dirt as she ripped through the forest. She ducked and weaved between the trees. The thick vegetation of the forest slowed her pace a bit, and the darkness of the night made seeing obstacles at break-neck speed much more difficult. She winced as she felt stray branched cut through her exposed skin, but she kept forwards. If the thick forest will slow her down, then she hoped that the labyrinth of vegetation will do the same for her attackers. She could hear the stamping of feet behind her, her pursuers hot on her trail. They seemed to be getting louder, Gine turned her head back a little to notice three black masses just an arm's reach away.

'Oh shit!' Gine flared her ki and blasted off. She kept close to the ground, wincing as she felt any trees in her path slam into her and shatter into many small splinters, cutting deep into her skin. At last, she ripped through the last tree of the forest and made it out into a large clearing by a lake.

She spared a glance behind her, smirking when she noticed no one following her. She turned her head forward again and let out a startled yelp when her previous pursuers had somehow got in front of her. Gine braced herself for impact and slammed straight into one of the aliens, they both were sent tumbling forward, skidding across the ground churning up grass and dirt. They stopped moving and Gine found herself pinned to the ground. She tried to move the alien by force but couldn't, so she raised her hand and shot a ki blast at it in point blank range. The alien grabbed it's face and Gine was able to scurry away from the alien's grasp. She rose to her feet, panting heavily from exertion. She was about to make a run for it but found herself surrounded by more of the aliens. It appeared more came and now had her trapped in a circle.

Gine cursed herself, wishing she had kept her scouter on during her flight. But it was all too late now. She started to tremble in fear, there was no getting out of this one. Gine realized then she was going to die here all alone on this backwater world, just like she was meant to. She knew she had it coming, she was weak, that's all she ever was. She dropped to her knees, hot tears streamed down her face.

'The weak die, and the strong live, that's the way it goes,' the cold words of truth from her captain repeated in her mind now and shook her to her very core. She couldn't stop her shoulders from shaking as she openly cried. There was so much she had wanted to do in life that just wasn't possible now. She hoped she could have found a mate (preferably Bardock), settled down, had a few kids, maybe even try to leave the military again and try at a career in something else. But because of her duty as a Saiyan she now faced her doom far away from home, just like her father. Gine's despair quickly turned to anger as she thought of those responsible for her predicament.

This was her uncles fault for not letting her leave, this was Bardock's fault for keeping her on his team, this was the King's fault for allowing Frieza to take control of their race and making them do this! And most of all, this was her fault for being so battle incompetent she couldn't properly defend herself.

The world became bright for a moment once more, looking up she saw all of the warriors had formed bright balls of ki in their palms, aimed directly at her. Gine felt her anger completely vanish and instead replaced with a deep fear as she was once again reminded of her impending death. Gine inhaled deeply and closed her eyes tight, 'This is it,'

Her eyes shot back open when the lake near them erupted sending the water high into the air and a vicious and primal roar came to her ears. A much larger black mass busted through the water and shot towards where she was. Gine watched as the aliens quickly scatter and try to flee but whoever this new person was they were faster. It grabbed ahold of one of the aliens faces and used it's ki to rip a hole through its stomach, Gine almost hurled at the brutality of it. The others were fleeing for their lives, but their running was futile as the new warrior jumped and pursued each of them.

"I'm going to make every last one of you filth pay!" The new warrior screamed.

Gine's eyes widened with recognition. She knew that voice could only belong to her hot-headed (and handsome) captain. Her spirits lifted as she realized she was saved once more by Bardock.

He quickly disposed of each of them and stopped before her, looking away; the area was left a bloody mess of craters and corpses of the fallen aliens, some of the trees had also been lit aflame, and Gine was now able to see her captain much clearer now, which might not have been a good thing.

He was a complete mess, the skin on his arms and parts of his face were blackened and burnt and his uniform was in complete tatters, only his boots and some of the under suit around parts of his leg and his crotch remained. His wet hair hung heavy over his eyes that burned with a fire she'd never seen from him before, and he was breathing loudly and heavily. She couldn't help but feel fear creep back into her as she stared at him. In that moment he seemed more a mindless beast of death rather then her cool, calm and collected leader.

Bardock turned towards her and Gine saw the crazed look on his face completely vanish.

"Gine!? What the hell happened to you?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

She chuckled a bit at that "You're the one to talk, you look like you flew through the sun!"

She took a moment to look at herself and noted that she was indeed, a mess. Her skin was burnt and bruised, though it wasn't as severe as Bardock's. Her uniform was torn in various places and her armour was cracked and broken.

"Heh, yeah I got into some trouble earlier," he responded.

"So, I'm guessing that huge explosion had something to do with you?"

He nodded, "One of these bastards had strapped a shit-ton of explosives to himself and detonated them just as I was about to kill him, the force from the blast sent me over here. Stupid move, there's no way that would have got me,"

"I'd say it got you pretty good, I hardly even recognized you when you came bursting through that lake. By the way, perfect timing."

Bardock responded with a simple grunt, appearing to be more focused on his injuries, Gine noticed the pained expressions on his face as he touched the burns on his skin. The adrenaline seemed to be wearing off and his injuries made themselves known. She even started to feel the stinging of her burns on her arms as well. "Hey," she said, "I got some healing salve back at my pod, you look like you really need it,"

"Where?"

"Back that way," She pointed to the trail of broken trees she left during her flight. Gine stood up and took off into the air, Bardock followed close behind.

* * *

Bardock breathed a sigh of relief as the healing salve worked its way into his injuries. His burnt skin was almost completely healed now from the green liquid. He never took this stuff with him on his missions, never seeing any reason to. First aid for small injuries was something he thought was useless, the way he saw it was if he could still move, then the injury can just be considered a minor annoyance. But right now, there were many things that annoyed him, so the least he could do was get rid of one problem.

He looked towards Gine, watching as she rubbed the salve into her skin. She returned his gaze for a moment, the she promptly crossed her arms and huffed, scowling in another direction. Bardock was confused. What was with the sudden change in emotion? Was she angry with him?

"What?" he said.

"What do you mean, 'what'!?" she spat.

"Why are you making that face? You mad or something?"

Gine scowled harshly at her captain, "It's just like you to be a complete (jerk) and then immediately pass it off like nothing ever happened!"

Bardock groaned 'S _he's still seriously mad about that?'_

"I called you useless, so what? Get over it,"

"I'm NOT useless!" she practically screamed.

"Exactly, so why are you angry?" Bardock put a hand to his forehead, it was always tiring to argue wi Gine. He could never figure out what she wanted or why she always seemed to be angry at the smallest things. 'Women, always a pain in my ass' he mused.

"It bothers me Bardock, because you're the one who's saying it,"

He raised an eyebrow, what would that have anything to do with this? What was she getting at?

"So?"

Gine's eye twitched and she barred her teeth, her hands clenching into tight fists. Bardock knew this look, it was the same face she'd make before she blew up on him.

"Don't I mean anything to you?!" she shrieked.

Bardock looked at her for a moment, he'd have to choose his next words very carefully.

"Yeah, you're part of my crew," Gine's eyes narrowed dangerously.

he internally scorned himself 'Shit, that wasn't careful enough'

She stood up abruptly and loudly growled, "You son of a-"

"Gine," he quickly cut in, "Calm down, you don't want any of these guys to hear us do you?" He made a move to place his hands on her shoulders to help calm her down a bit, but she instead shrugged them off. He tried once more but instead Gine harshly shoved him back. Bardock was starting to get annoyed by her sudden aggressiveness. Bardock could tell this was much deeper than it seemed, something else was wrong.

"Hey, what the hell is the matter with you?" he said, his voice raising a bit. "You're not just mad I insulted you, so what is it then, huh!?"

She stood there silently for a moment, her brows furrowed, and her gaze averted from him. Bardock growled, he was starting to lose his patience. She was seriously starting to bother him with the childish way Gine was acting, but he tried not to lose his temper and say something he'd regret later like before.

"Well?"

She let out a deep sigh "Bardock, I'm going to explain something to you and I hope I can get it through your thick skull," she started in a much softer tone.

"You and I have been in this," she paused, thinking of the right words to say, "irregular, relationship for a long time now. And I know you know what I mean. I wasn't just a one-time thing for you, you'd always come back. You even decided to move in with me!"

He stared at her awkwardly. Not knowing what to do or say. He was a warrior, not some soft, mushy bag of emotion like Gine was. He was like every other Saiyan, proud and ruthless. Only caring for battle. These kinds of talks were unfit for Saiyans. But he couldn't stop her from talking, something inside of him wanted to hear this discussion through. Gine was probably having more of an effect on him than he cared to admit.

"My point is, you and I aren't just part of a team. And you know that."

"I, uh, so?"

Her eye twitched, it was clear she was starting to get irritated again, "So, why are you acting like I'm nothing but your subordinate? It just doesn't make any sense!"

"Well, your housing unit is a ton better than the shack I was living in,"

"Bardock!" she complained.

"It doesn't matter anyways, you gotta stop bein' so soft, talking about your emotions and whatnot. You're a Saiyan. Stop caring about relationships and mating and start focusing on what really matters!"

Gine sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Of course you'd say that, I don't know what I was expecting." Gine turned away from him and stared off into the dark night sky.

Bardock sat back down close to the fire, staring into it. Good, at least she was done talking about her feelings for one night. But, he couldn't help but reflect on her words. Why does he act the way he does for Gine? This was completely un-saiyan like. Why did he decide to move in with her? Why did he decide to always look out for specifically her in battle? No one else seemed to care. It could only mean that…

No, he wasn't like that. He was a warrior, he didn't care about mating or love. That's not what a Saiyan cares about. He tried to erase the thoughts from his mind and focus on what was important.

They had a planet to conquer, and they were separated from everyone else. He had to focus on the coming battles, or else they'd die here.

What was the plan? What would happen tomorrow? Should he keep trying to find his team, or should he perhaps just get on with the mission and find them after he was done purging the planet? These questions weighed heavily on him now, but he just couldn't gather the focus to think them through. He was too distracted. Bardock cursed, it was all Gine's fault he couldn't get his head straight.

"Bardock, I can't do this anymore. I can't continue being a fighter." She spoke suddenly,

Bardock growled, "Enough Gine I don't feel like arguing with you right now,"

"Bardock please listen, do you care about me?" she asked earnestly

He was silent, only staring into the fire that brimmed between them.

"Do you?" she asked again, her voice was somber as she stared directly at him. Bardock was avoiding looking at her at all costs.

"I'm going to die, you know that, right?"

He knew. It was inevitable. She wasn't cut out for any of this. Her heart was too soft anf her skills were too blunt. Not only that, Bardock noticed that she had an awfully tough time adapting as a fighter. She could not improve no matter how much experience she got. And while the others seemed oblivious too it, Bardock knew that Gine showed some sort of disgust when on purging missions. He could tell she didn't like the killing, or the fighting. Traits unfit for a Saiyan warrior. The hard truth was starting to lay it self-bare. Gine shouldn't be on this team anymore.

"I know," he replied.

"After this mission, if we even survive, I'm done. Okay?"

"Yeah, you're done."

She breathed out a sigh of relief, "Good, I'm glad we're finally seeing eye to eye on this one. Now it's just a matter of convincing Commander Asshole to let me go," she joked.

Bardock chuckled a bit, it amused him that even she would talk about her uncle like that.

They sat silently, this time in a little more comfortable silence. There was still some tension between them, but that was something to be resolved another time.

They both sat back laying down and staring up at the stars shining bright in the sky. Sleep was starting to take him, and his eyes felt like they weighed thousands of tons. He was drifting off until the wind picked up just a bit, making Bardock shiver. The fire was starting to die down, and the warmth it spread was escaping.

He felt strange, like something was just…off. The sudden tiredness he was feeling was wearing off fast. Something was very wrong. He became restless, unable to lay still. He rose to a sitting position, and that's when he felt it. An awful sensation that tore at him, Bardock…. really had to pee.

He hurried away to a tree some distance away, making sure Gine couldn't see him as he relieved himself. He finished a short while later and returned to the camp. Gine was fast asleep, softly snoring away. Bardock crouched down and idly stoked the fire, noting the chill earlier had died down, and he now felt the warmth of the fire envelope him once more. He was completely relaxed, or as relaxed as one could be on a purging mission. He laid back down and sleep started to take him once more.

Gine's scouter beeped.

Bardock shot up and looked around. Searching for any signs of an incoming ambush. Her scouter seemed to beep for a long time, like it was processing a very large number, or many numbers.

That wasn't good.

"Gine, what does the scouter read," he said while keeping his eyes on the tree line.

She didn't respond. "Gine," he called out again and received once more no response. He turned his head towards her and the first thing he noticed was her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets as she stared at the numbers on the scouter's screen. It wasn't fear that showed on her face, but utter terror. Bardock's heart was starting to race now.

"What does the power level say," he asked with much haste. She kept quiet, horrified at whatever number was on that screen.

"GINE!"

"Th..T..Thir," she stammered, unable to form any words.

"What is it!?"

"Thirteen thousand!" she finally breathed out.

Bardock froze. That was way too high!

"There's more, m-many more," she stuttered.

Bardock's eyes were wide and his teeth clenched. His fists were clamped so hard he felt his nails piercing into his skin.

The fire that brimmed between them suddenly blew out, startling the two Saiyan warriors as their eyes darted all around them. A new light source came from behind and they swiveled their heads back to the tree line to see a dreadful sight. Thousands of short and stumpy figures, carrying torches and marching out from the foliage. But that wasn't what made Bardock's hairs stand on end, it was who appeared to lead them. At the center of their column walked a tall being, cloaked in gray robes and had some type of wide based, conical hat atop their head. Their walk aided by a long, black, metal staff.

"T-that's h-him, the one with the high power level." Gine said pointing at the robed figure. As they approached the two Saiyan's readied themselves, Bardock pushed a shaking Gine behind him.

"Stay close to me, I'll distract them for a bit then you run as fast as you can, take your pod with you." He commanded.

"I'm not leaving you-" she started to protest before Bardock cut her off.

"I'll find my own way out, just do what I say! I don't plan on dying here," That seemed to reassure her, and the two of them watched with dread as the army marched towards them.

The tall being rose his fist up and the advancing force halted several yards away from the Saiyans. The robed one standing strong at the head of the column. Bardock was able to get a closer look at him now, noticing a large grey beard that reached his chest and long flowing white hair that waved gently in the wind. His skin was a tanned colour, and Bardock could tell that even under those robes there was tightly packed muscle. Clearly the staff he carried was not for helping him move.

A robed warrior with a staff, among people that weren't his own. Bardock remembered meeting someone just like that. Back on Planet Dirb, that Trout guy seemed to be in a very similar position. Bardock wondered if there was some sort of connection between these two.

They stared each other down. The Saiyans gaze fixed on the robed man and black irises scowled back at them.

Unexpectedly, the robed man's features softened, and a smile broke out on his face.

"Hello there!" called out a booming voice. The saiyans were silent, staring down their opponents and searching for any sudden attacks. The robed warrior stroked his long beard as he carefully watched the two saiyans.

"Hmm, not very talkative I see." The robed man paused and continued to stroke his beard in a thoughtful manner while he observed the saiyans. "I suppose that's for the better, I can get this moving along easier."

He stepped forward and raised his hands, gesturing towards the army behind him.

"My friends here say that you and your troop have invaded this peaceful world to murder, plunder, and pillage. Is there any truth to this?" he questioned. Bardock found it strange that he was even asking them this. Of course that's what their doing, did he not know who Frieza was?

"What does it look like we're doing, dumbass!?" he snarked. The robed man simply laughed at his response, making Bardock growl in anger. Why wasn't he taking him seriously? Bardock clenched his fists, ready to spring into action at any moment. Gine's hand were strung around his shoulder, trying to make sure he stayed put, "Bardock, don't," she whispered.

"Oh my, you are a bold one!" the robed man laughed. "I know you can tell with that little device of yours just how truly outmatched you are. So please, show some more respect."

Bardock growled deeply, "Respect huh? Well I'll show you some respect!" he said and mustered up as much ki as he could, then fired it at the old man. The man smirked. Raising one hand, he casually flicked the blast away with his finger. It soared and exploded in the trees nearby creating a large explosion.

"Now now, don't be hasty. If you want to fight we will, just stay a while and listen to what I have to say first."

"I don't care about anything you gotta' say," Bardock replied while cracking his knuckles. "Now, I've got a planet to conquer, and if you don't get outta my way now I'll-"

"You _should_ care about what I have to say, it might just save you life," He suddenly interrupted. Bardock's eyes narrowed. He was starting to lose his patience with this arrogant old man. He was ready to get this fight started, he didn't care that his opponents power level was many times his own, or that he had an army of thousands behind him, he'd take them all out. It wasn't the first time he'd fought when the odds were stacked against him and won, and it wouldn't be the last.

"I think I'll pass," Bardock said. He was about to leap at him when Gine grabbed ahold of his arm, tugging him back.

"Bardock, please just listen for a moment," she pleaded. He tried to pry his arm free but somehow Gine had mustered up an iron grip, and he couldn't get her off him without using a ton of force, something he wasn't willing to do now for some reason. He looked at her and saw how desperate her expression was. He didn't know why, but just from looking at just how pleading her face was that he should maybe listen to her for once.

"Fine, say what you gotta' say," Gine's face softened and relief washed over her. He looked back at the old man, "But once you're done talkin' you're all dead, got that?" His threat seemed to have no effect and the old warrior had a beaming smile on his face that bothered Bardock to no end.

"Ah, I may be old, but I recognize love when I see it! Quite the powerful thing," The two saiyans looked at him wide eyed and their cheeks flushed a bright pink. Gine simply laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head. Bardock snarled.

"Get to talking old man!"

"Hahaha, alright, alright," his features hardened, and the soft smile was replaced with a frown.

"I do not wish to fight you, but I will to defend these people. Whatever number you had on your scouter, just know that my true power is many times greater than that," Bardock looked at him with much doubt, there's no way he could fake his battle power, then again, he did know of some of frieza's men that could transform to increase their power. "If you try to fight me, you will lose, that is certain. So, I am going to offer you a way out. Surrender now and I'll let you both leave the planet un-harmed."

Bardock scoffed, "That's it? You really think I'm just gonna abandon my mission and my team like this?"

"A keen sense of loyalty, a good trait for a warrior. But you must be wise as well, and it is not wise to fight me. Go home in peace and live to fight another day."

Bardock spit on the ground beside him, "Gonna have to decline, Jackass."

There was a solemn look on the man's face. He seemed almost sad at Bardock's response. "So be it," he said, the melancholy clear in his voice. Bardock flared his ki and launched forward at the man, the soldiers around him scattered far away to avoid the conflict. Bardock's fist shot forward only to strike air and he sailed past the old man. Bardock stumbled on his feet, not expecting to miss like that. He turned around and tried again. He rushed him but the old man just seemed to vanish as soon as Bardock tried to attack. Looking back he saw that he was still in the same place. Appearing to not have moved at all.

'What the hell is up with this guy? I didn't even see him move!' Bardock wasn't about to give up though, he threw himself at the elderly warrior once more. He kicked, and he punched, but without any effect as the old man simply dodged each strike. Finally, Bardock's fist connected with the man's cheek and a small shockwave ripped through the air, but the aged warrior didn't budge. He looked straight ahead, not at Bardock but past him, with emotionless eyes.

Bardock was stunned. What kind of being was he dealing with? His thoughts halted though, when he felt an immense pain as a fist slammed into his abdomen. There was a sickening crack and Bardock felt his ribs shatter. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he dropped to his knees, having lost any energy to fight back. His breath escaped him and his vision started to blur until finally, everything went black for the second time that night. He fell flat on his face, unconscious.

* * *

"Bardock!" Gine cried out in anguish as she sprinted to the fallen Saiyan. She reached him and quickly flipped him over. A concerned look washed over her as she noticed the dark area of blood pooling under his skin, covering much of his abdomen. Though, she could still feel a pulse at least, a sense of relief coming over her. She glared up at the elderly man, who had been silently staring down at them.

"You monster!" she shrieked.

"Me? Why do you accuse me of this? Is it because I want to save lives and not destroy them? Your kind came here to murder everyone in cold blood just to appease your lust for battle, yet you call me the monster." His eyes were cold as he chastised her. "Besides, he wished this upon himself, I warned him not to fight me. Now I can at least talk to more sensible minds,"

Gine shot up to her feet, "I'm not talking with _you!"_ she snarled.

"Then what? Are you going to fight me? If your superior ended up in his position, what makes you think that _you_ could possibly have any chance?"

She was silent as he considered his words. He was right, she wasn't going to do anything besides glare angrily. Besides, judging by how she couldn't get her legs to stop shaking, she was far too scared to even try anything.

He gave her a warm smile, "Now now, my dear. There's no need to be frightened. I'm not going to hurt you, and neither will they," he reassured and pointed ahead. Gine was suddenly once again conscious of the literal thousands of short and stumpy aliens that watched her. She felt rather awkward really. But, she did feel a little more reassured from the old man's words, she could tell he was being genuine.

"My friends told me that you wouldn't even come out from your ship, so they left you alone. Not very appropriate for a Saiyan warrior to be hiding away during battle, I might add," he said while laughing. There were many chuckles from the audience. Gine felt her face heat up as she turned red from embarrassment. She really hated being ridiculed.

"Now, your comrade declined but the offer still stands for you. Surrender and you can go free along with the others,"

"Others?" she repeated, "Does th-that mean…the rest of my team-?"

"Alive, albeit in the same position as your friend,"

Gine was beyond relieved. Everyone was alive, and they could leave without losing anyone. A smile broke out on her face, but it quickly faded she was hit with a sudden realization. She had to make the decision to go or stay. If she left, everyone would shun her for fleeing battle, and making them flee as well. Her team would be ridiculed from the Saiyan authorities and there would be no chance of them ever reaching the elites. Everyone, especially Bardock, would hate her, they might even try to kill her.

On the other hand, if she stayed she knew everyone, including herself, would be executed. But perhaps that was more fitting for a Saiyan warrior. She knew that would be the preferred option for her team, but not for her. Gine stared at the ground as more depressing thoughts came to her mind.

The old warrior looked at her with keen interest, "Well? What is your decision?"

"I - I can't," she said in a small voice.

"My dear, reflect on what you're saying. I'm going to give you another chance, please make the right decision." His tone was somber as he stared expectantly at the timid Saiyan.

"I-I am a proud Saiyan," her voice was shaky as she said each word. "I will not run from battle, a-and I will die here as a true Saiyan warrior would."

The old warrior stared at her for a bit, no evidence of any emotion showed on his face. He then threw his head back and a hearty laugh erupted from his mouth.

"Now that's the mindset of a true Saiyan warrior if ever I've heard one! I respect that, but I know you don't believe any of what you're saying." A warm smile re-appeared on his face.

He motioned to the army, "Get some sleep lads! The battle is over!" It was as if a curtain of tension was lifted off the crowd and they erupted in a great cheer, pumping their fists in the air. Gine looked at the cheering aliens awkwardly, she kind of felt happy for them, but at the same time it felt strange that they were celebrating because she was leaving.

The bearded man tapped her shoulder, "Grab your comrade and follow me," he beckoned. He then flew off into the night sky. Gine hoisted Bardock over her shoulders and followed him. Noting another was trailing behind with her pod.

They touched down sometime later in a field surrounded by mountains. It seemed to be some sort of camp, Gine noted the tents scattered about and… spaceships? That was weird, she thought these guys weren't a space faring race.

"Welcome to the base camp! Here is where we coordinate all of our attacks on this colony." The old man bellowed

"Colony?" Gine questioned.

"Indeed, you didn't think this was their home world, did you? There's no signs of civilization anywhere!"

Gine raised an eyebrow, it was weird that there were no cities, but she had thought that maybe they all just lived underground. "What? Then what is this then?"

"A fortress world, or more-so an elaborate trap for the Frieza's soldiers." Gine would be lying if she said she wasn't impressed. This was well put together. Everything from scouter jamming to blowing up the moon showed intricate planning that Gine just had to respect.

They walked through the camp until they reached five white orbs that Gine recognized to be space pods, and inside were her squad members, all appeared to be peacefully asleep, but their bruised and bloodied faces showed otherwise. Gine's eyes narrowed, 'What did you do to them!?"

"Don't fret my dear, I simply put them in emergency stasis in their pods. They are all still alive." He answered. Gine accepted his word with contempt. The alien that had had followed placed her pod next to the others and opened it up. She placed Bardock inside and set the coordinates for Planet Vegeta, doing the same for the others.

Gine stood beside an empty extra pod, she looked back at the now smiling old man and he waved goodbye. "I guess I should thank you," she said, "But, why? You know they are just going to continue killing innocent lives? So why spare them?"

"'They', but not you?" the man smiled. Gine shot him a puzzled look.

"I hope that my actions here today would have an impression on you and your team, perhaps they might change their ways and realize the evils that they are doing."

Gine stared back at him as she processed his words.

Evil. That word seemed almost foreign to her. Was what they were doing 'Evil'? They were just trying to survive in this universe just like anybody else, and it was better to be hunter rather than the hunted. Gine had always felt wrong whenever she was on her missions, to see all these people die horrid deaths thanks to them. But she never thought they were 'evil'. Now that she thought of it, that word never had any meaning to her. She never cared about what was good or bad, she'd suppressed those feelings so that she could be the good Saiyan warrior everyone expected her to be. But they weren't gone completely.

No, it was kill or be killed, nothing else mattered. Why should she be feeling remorse just because these other races couldn't defend themselves? It's not her problem. On the other hand, she would be defenseless herself if Bardock wasn't around, so maybe she can relate. But that was just the way the universe worked, her captain told her many times of this hard truth.

"You're wrong, what we do is not 'evil'. We do it to survive. The strong live and the weak die, that's the way this universe works." she said.

His eyes showed great sorrow as he stared at her, "I'm sorry that you have this perception of the universe. It truly saddens me to see the gentlest of souls so corrupted by them." He looked off into the distance with a pained expression on his face. He looked back at her and gave her a sad smile, "Go now my dear, back to your home, I pray that you consider my words, and change for the better," He waved again

Gine nodded, not returning his wave, she wasn't about to become friends with these guys just because he showed a little mercy, he was still her enemy as far as she was concerned.

"This isn't it you know, Frieza will send stronger men," she called out one last time.

"I do hope he does! A comet is projected to hit this world soon, so we will be long gone by then."

Gine got into her pod and closed the hatch. Her pod lifted into the air and blasted out of the world's atmosphere, back to Planet Vegeta. Stasis gas filled her pod and she fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
